JPH04201473A - Serial printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To expand the interval between a printing head and a platen if necessary at the time of the setting of an ink ribbon by mounting one guide member on the movable member supported within a printer case in a displaceable manner and moving the engaging position and separating position with an engaging receiving part by the displacement of the movable member. CONSTITUTION:One end of a movable arm 12 being a movable member is connected to a guide shaft 6 in a rotatable manner. The other end of the movable arm 12 is provided to the lower part of the side plate 7b of a printer frame 7 in a rotatable manner through a pin 13 and the movable arm can be shaken around the pin 13. The movable arm 12 moves the guide shaft 16 to an engaging position and a separation position with respect to an engaging receiving part 22 and a positioning groove 11. Therefore, one guide shaft 6 can be engaged and separated with respect to the engaging receiving part 32 and the positioning groove 11 by the skaking of the movable arm 12.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The second invention relates to a serial printer in which a print head moves in a direction perpendicular to a paper feeding direction.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, in a serial printer, a print head is supported movably in a direction perpendicular to a paper feeding direction by a pair of guide shafts extending parallel to a platen. Then, by loading the ink ribbon cassette, the ink ribbon is inserted between the print head and the platen, and printing can be performed.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, there were problems such as the distance between the print head and the platen being very narrow, making it difficult to set the ink ribbon.

An object of the present invention is to provide a serial printer in which the distance between the print head and the platen can be increased as needed when setting an ink ribbon.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention provides a serial printer in which a print head is movably supported by a pair of guide members extending parallel to a platen. On the other hand, an engagement receiver is provided that can be engaged and disengaged from a direction perpendicular to the extending direction, and one guide member is attached to a movable member that is displaceably supported within the printer case. is moved to an engagement position and a disengagement position with the engagement receiving part.

It is suitable for simplifying the structure if the engagement receiving portion is formed integrally with the print head.

Furthermore, in order to facilitate and ensure the positioning of one of the guide members, it is desirable that the movable member be swingably supported by the printer case or the printer frame located within the printer case. Further, in order to further facilitate and ensure the positioning of one guide member, the printer frame is provided with a design that allows the one guide member to be positioned when the one guide member is moved to the engagement position with the engagement receptacle. A positioning groove may be formed that is engaged with the guide member and is detached from the one guide member when the one guide member is moved to a disengagement position with the engagement receiving portion.

In order to automatically engage and disengage one guide member from the engagement receiving portion, an opening/closing lid is provided on the printer case, and the opening/closing lid and the movable member are connected so that they can be interlocked. A link may be provided that moves one of the guide members to a disengaged position with the engagement receiving part when the opening/closing lid is opened, and moves one of the guide members to a position of engagement with the engagement receiving part when the opening/closing lid is closed. good.

[Operation] One guide member can be engaged with and disengaged from the engagement receiving portion of the print head by displacement of the movable member, and the print head can be moved around the other guide member by disengaging one guide member from the engagement receiving portion. It becomes swingable and can be separated from the platen.

[Embodiment] In FIG. 1 showing the first embodiment, inside one side (right side) of a thin box-shaped printer case 1, a print head 3 is mounted with a pair of guide members extending parallel to a platen 4. It is supported by a guide shaft 5.6 so as to be movable in its extending direction. A slider 31 is fixed to one side of the print head 3 and is slidably fitted to one guide shaft 5. A slider 31 is fixed to one side of the print head 3, and a slider 31 is fixed to one side of the side. A receiving portion 32 is integrally formed and supported by the guide shaft 5.6 via the slider 31 and the engagement receiving portion 32. The engagement receiving portion 32 has a U-shape that opens laterally, and one guide shaft 6 is removably engaged with the engagement receiving portion 32 . The direction in which one guide shaft 6 engages and disengages from the engagement receiving portion 32 is a direction perpendicular to the extending direction of this guide shaft.

The printer frame 7 disposed inside the printer case 1 is detachable with side plates 7b standing on both sides of the bottom plate 7a (only one side of the side plates 7b is shown in FIG. 1). A platen 4 is fixed to the side plate 7b, and a guide shaft 5 is fixedly supported on the side plate 7b.

An opening 8 is provided on one side of the printer case 1 adjacent to the print head 3, and an opening/closing lid 9 is placed over this opening. The opening 8 is large enough to take the ribbon cassette 10 in and out and to rotate the print head 3 about the guide shaft 5.

The opening/closing lid 9 is provided on the side plate 7b of the printer frame 7 via a hinge means (not shown) so that it can be opened and closed in the direction of arrow A.
It can be opened to the position shown by the two-dot chain line. An ink ribbon (not shown) is attached to the ribbon cassette 10, and the ink ribbon is inserted between the print head 3 and the platen 4 when set.

Further, both ends of the guide shaft 6 are releasably engaged with U-shaped positioning grooves 11 provided in the side plate 7b of the printer frame 7. The direction in which the guide shaft 6 engages and disengages from the positioning groove 11 is perpendicular to the direction in which the guide shaft extends.

The positioning groove 11 is for positioning the guide shaft 6 with respect to the guide shaft 5. The guide shaft 6 is the engagement receiving part 3
2, the guide shaft 6 is also in a position separated from the positioning groove 11.

One end of a movable arm 12, which is a movable member, is rotatably connected to the guide shaft 6. The other end of the movable arm 12 is rotatably attached to the lower part of the side plate 7b of the printer frame 7 via a bin 13, and this movable arm is swingable about the bin 13. The movable arm 12 is for moving the guide shaft 6 to an engagement position and a disengagement position with respect to the engagement receiving portion 32 and the positioning groove 11.

Therefore, one guide shaft 6 can be engaged with and disengaged from the engagement receiving portion 32 and the positioning groove 11 by the swinging of the movable arm 12.

In order to prevent the guide shaft 6 engaged with the positioning groove 11 from inadvertently separating from the positioning groove, the opening/closing lid 9 is
A presser protrusion 91 is protruded inside the opening/closing lid, and this protrusion engages with the positioning groove 11 to prevent the guide shaft 6 from coming off the positioning groove 11 when the opening/closing lid is closed.

A paper feed cassette 15 containing recording paper 14 is provided at the bottom of the printer case 1 so that it can be pulled out (left side in FIG. 1), and a picking roller 16 is provided above the paper feed cassette. The picking roller 16 has recording paper 14
is pressed by a biasing means (not shown). The picking roller 16 is rotated by the driving force of a driving means (not shown) so that the recording paper 14 can be taken out from the paper feed cassette 15. The recording paper 14 taken out from the paper feed cassette 15 is fed between the platen 4 and the ink ribbon by a paper feed roller 17, and is discharged from the discharge port 9a of the opening/closing lid 9 by a paper discharge roller 18. Note that the picking roller 16, paper feed roller 17, and paper ejection roller 18 are each mounted on the side plate 7 of the printer frame 7.
It is supported by b.

According to the above-mentioned detachment, when the opening/closing lid 9 is opened as shown by the two-dot chain line and the movable arm 12 is swung clockwise about the bottle 13, one guide shaft 6 engages the engagement receiving part 32 and the positioning part. The print head 3 is separated from the groove 11, and the print head 3 can swing around the other guide shaft 5, and can be separated from the platen 4.

Therefore, when setting the ink ribbon, the distance between the print head 3 and the platen 4 can be widened by swinging the print head 3 around the other guide shaft 5 as necessary, and the ink ribbon setting process can be performed easily. etc. becomes easy.

The second to fourth embodiments are shown in FIGS. 2 to 4, respectively.

In these examples, although the swinging mechanism of the movable arm 12 is different from the first embodiment, the other detachment is substantially the same as the upper side, so the reference numerals of the detachment parts corresponding to the first embodiment are This corresponds to that of the first embodiment.

In the second embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the end of the movable arm 12a opposite to the side where the guide shaft 6 is attached is rotatably attached to the upper part of the side plate 7b of the printer frame 7 via a pin 13a. The arm 12a can swing around this bottle. The bottle 13a is slidable in a long hole 71 provided in the side plate 7b of the printer frame 7 in the horizontal direction in the figure.

Therefore, when the guide shaft 6 is disengaged from the engagement receiving part 32 and the positioning groove 11, the opening/closing lid 9 is opened, the guide arm 12a is moved to the right along the long hole 71, and the terminal end of this long hole is moved. The bottle 13a may be swung counterclockwise around the bottle 13a as shown by the two-dot chain line in the vicinity.

In the third embodiment shown in FIG. 3, one end of a link 20 is rotatably connected to one end of a movable arm 12b via a pin 22 concentric with the guide shaft 6, and the other end of this link is connected to an opening/closing lid. It is rotatably connected to the inside of 9 via a connecting bottle 21. The link 20 moves one guide shaft 6 to a position where it is separated from the engagement receiving part 32 and the positioning groove 11 when the opening/closing lid 9 is opened, and moves this guide shaft 6 to a position where it is separated from the engaging receiving part when the opening/closing lid is closed. It moves to the engagement position. For this purpose, when the opening/closing lid 9 is opened as shown by the two-dot chain line, the movable arm 12b swings clockwise around the bottle 13, and the guide shaft 6 moves to the engagement receiving part 32 and positioning. He will be automatically withdrawn from the 11th season. The link 20 has an elongated hole 201 to receive the pin 22, thereby linking the movable arm 12b and the opening/closing lid 9 in an interlocking manner.

In the fourth embodiment shown in FIG. 4, a movable arm 12C is provided in the same manner as the movable arm 12a of the second embodiment, and the guide shaft 6 is moved to the engagement receiving portion 32 by the pressure spring 23 made of a compression spring. The movable arm 12c is urged in the direction of separation from the positioning groove 11, that is, to the right in the figure.

Therefore, when the opening/closing lid 9 is opened, the movable arm 12c moves to the right by the spring force of the pressing spring 23, and the guide shaft 6
is automatically disengaged from the engagement receiving portion 32 and the positioning groove 11.

In each of the above embodiments, the movable arm is swingably supported by the printer frame 7, but the movable arm may be swingably supported by the printer case 1. Further, the movable arm may be supported not only on the printer frame 7 and the printer case 1 but also on other fixed members.

Furthermore, in each of the above embodiments, a movable arm is used as a movable member, and one guide shaft 6 can be engaged with and disengaged from the engagement receiving portion 32 by the swinging motion of the movable arm, or can be made movable or slidable as a member. The guide shaft 6 may be provided in such a way that it can be engaged with and disengaged from the engagement receiving portion 32 by using a slider that is provided.

Further, in each of the embodiments described above, the engagement receiving part 32 may be formed integrally with the print head 3, or the engagement receiving part 32 may be formed separately from the print head 3.

For example, the print head 3 may be mounted on a carrier, and the engagement receiving portion may be formed on the carrier.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, one of the guide members is detachably engaged with the engagement receiving portion of the print head, which is necessary when setting an ink ribbon, etc. The distance between the print head and the platen can be increased depending on the situation, making it easier to set the ink ribbon.

Furthermore, if the engagement receiving portion is formed integrally with the print head, the number of parts will be reduced and removal will be simplified.

Further, if the movable member is detachably supported in a swingable manner by the printer case or the printer frame located within the printer case, the positioning of one guide member can be facilitated and ensured.

Furthermore, if the printer frame is provided with a positioning groove in which one of the guide members can be engaged and disengaged, the guide member can be positioned reliably and the supporting state of the guide member can be stabilized.

In addition, a link is provided between the opening/closing lid and the movable member to connect the two in an interlocking manner, so that when the opening/closing lid is opened, one guide member is moved to a position where it is disengaged from the engagement receiving part, and when the opening/closing lid is closed, one of the guide members is moved to a position where the opening/closing lid is closed. By moving the guide member to the engagement position with the engagement receiving portion, it is possible to automatically disengage and disengage one of the guide members from the engagement receiving portion.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 to 4 are vertical sectional views showing first to fourth embodiments of the present invention, respectively. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Printer case, 2... Print head, 4... Platen, 5.6... Guide member (guide shaft), 7... Printer frame, 9... Opening/closing lid, 11... - Positioning groove, 12.12a, 12b, 12cm = movable member (movable arm), 20... link, 32... engagement receiving part. that's all

Claims (5)

[Claims] (1) In a serial printer in which the print head is movably supported by a pair of guide members extending parallel to the platen, the print head has a direction perpendicular to the extending direction of one of the guide members. An engagement receiving portion is provided that can be engaged and disengaged from the direction, and the one guide member is attached to a movable member that is displaceably supported within the printer case, and the engagement receiving portion is disposed in the printer case by displacement of the movable member. A serial printer characterized in that it is moved to an engagement position and a disengagement position with a receiving part. (2) The serial printer according to claim 1, wherein the engagement receiving portion is integrally formed with the print head. (3) The serial printer according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the movable member is swingably supported by the printer case or a printer frame located within the printer case. (4) In any one of claims 1 to 3, the printer frame engages with the one guide member when the one guide member is moved to the engagement position with the engagement receiving portion; A serial printer characterized in that a positioning groove is formed that separates the one guide member from the one guide member when the one guide member moves to a separation position from the engagement receiving portion. (5) In any one of claims 1 to 4, the printer case is provided with an opening/closing lid, and the opening/closing lid and the movable member are connected so as to be interlocked, and when the opening/closing lid is opened, the opening/closing lid is connected to the movable member. A link is provided that moves the one guide member to a disengaged position with the engagement receiver and moves the one guide member to an engagement position with the engagement receiver when the opening/closing lid is closed. A serial printer featuring